Always.
I've been a Bruins and Minnesota Vikings fan for the past 35 years and without a bit of optimism then the cumulative heart-breaking gut-wrenching soul-destroying losses of these two franchises would've turned me off sports a long time ago. (although admittedly I'm finding it difficult to muster much positivity about the Vikings anymore)

I wouldn't rule it out though.

Math Man - I do really enjoy your stats. My question about shooting percentage is whether you see a difference between teams that are in the lead during the game and teams that trail. Or if you ever break it down by period. I don't really look at team shooting %.

I would think that strong defensive teams with a quick transition game (which Montreal was always amazing at - killed me) would generally have the highest shooting %.

And that a 2nd category would be that teams protecting a lead would have an inflated shooting % as they don't tend to push the play in the 3rd as much or throw as many desperate shots on net.

I would think that both of these situations would also effect a team's puck possession.

I'm not sure if either one affected the Bruins this past year - I'd have to look a bit more - just curious if those are factored in?